Stubborn Habits
by RyansDreamMaker
Summary: With Miles, Monroe, and Conner in trouble, Charlie has no choice but to rescue them and prove once and for all she can take care of herself.
1. Chapter 1

A/N Charlie is a total badass and I never liked the way the show didn't let her fully show it. So this is mostly Charlie being awesome.

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><p><em>Well, well, well, who needs help now?<em> Charlie complained silently to herself as she scouted the large abandoned warehouse before her._ Great. At least dictator-in-training got taken with them, he'd just make it harder to get them out._ She watched as a chubby guy came out accompanied by a skinny guy with pre-blackout tattoos covering his arms.

She silently cursed herself for being so stupid. She should have known something was wrong when she saw those two guys in the woods, but they had looked like typical travellers, so she had ignored them. Plus, in her experience, guys wandering around in the woods just brought trouble, so she went her own way and continued on her quest for dinner.

She regretted that now. If she had not been so stubborn maybe she could have warned the guys that something was wrong. But she was stubborn. And now here she was, by herself, against a bung of thugs, trying to rescue the ungrateful bastards.

It wasn't all their fault though. She knew that. Deep down. Waaay deep down. She just wished that they would quit treating her like a child and more like an equal.

_**Earlier that day**_

"I had it under control, I didn't need your help." She glared at Miles as she sat down on a rotted log and peeled off her jacket so she could see the cuts on her arm. She gritted her teeth and hissed as the dried blood pulled at the injured flesh. Monroe made his way toward her as if to help but she cut him off. "Don't touch me, I can do it myself."

"Look kid, you were up against two guys with just your knife, I wasn't about to watch you go down just to save your pride." Miles looked at her like a father looks disappointed at his daughter, "what were you thinking? I told you to stay back behind the wall."

Charlie looked at him, outrage evident in her face. "Are you kidding me! There were twenty guys out there I wasn't about to watch you get your asses handed to you when I could have helped."

"Hey, it's over now so let's just drop it." Monroe quickly cut in and was trying to be the voice of reason. That's when you know something is wrong, Sebastian Monroe is trying to be the voice of reason.

But her anger had reached it's peak. "Why does Conner, the one that can't even hold a sword without dropping it, allowed to go in, but I have to stay out." She took a deep breath and plowed on. "Is it because you guys doubt me?" She looked between Miles and Monroe, who both tried to speak at once, but she held up her hand to silence them. "I've saved both of your asses plenty of times, there's no reason to keep me out of a fight."

She tried to keep going but Miles stopped her with his hands on her shoulders. "No, Charlie don't be stupid, we know you can fight. We just didn't want you to get hurt." But if he though that would make it better, he was dead wrong.

"I'm not a child Miles, I don't need you to protect me. I have more experience and better skills than Conner and you know it." She poked him in the chest as if to emphasize her point.

"Charlotte we aren't questioning your skills, we were just trying to look out for you." Monroe's eyes told her he was telling the truth, but she didn't care. She wanted to be treated like an equal not some little girl that needed Uncle Miles and his faithful sidekick to keep her safe.

"Whatever. I'm going hunting." She grabbed her crossbow and started for the trees before she stopped and turned around, "unless you guys think it's to dangerous."

She looked at the boys' faces. Miles was frowning like he was confused at where the conversation had gone wrong, Monroe was looking like he might volunteer to join her just in case, and Conner just looked like some smug school boy that was dominating the playground. She glared at them all one more time for good measure before disappearing into the trees.

_**Present**_

_I hope you guys are happy, because this defiantly is not going to be 'safe.' _ She started making her way around the perimeter. There was one guy gaurding the front. And apparently his version of guarding was to sit in the old plastic lawn chairs by the fire taking a nap. He looked disgusting, like he hadn't bathed since before the power went out. _Let's call him Stinky. So that makes three guys so far._

As she made her way around the right side of the building she noticed a grimy old window about twelve feet up with two more guys underneath it. Or, at least she thought that's what they were. Both were tiny and carrying guns that were as long as they were tall. She figured that this was what Aaron had meant whenever he talked about 'little people.' _Ok, how about I call you Frodo and Sam. Five guys._ She smiled to herself. Aaron would be proud, he had actually managed to teach her something after all.

Around the back side of the building there were some rusted out holes in the metal siding that would have been big enough to fit through, but there was no way to reach them. The guy leaning against the wall smoking a cigarette looked extrodinarily average. _Joe, or maybe Bob. Nah, Joe's good. Six guys._

She moved on to the left and final side of the building and saw three men standing in front of an ancient looking scaffolding that led all the way up to the roof of the building. She didn't have much pre-blackout knowledge, but looking at the roof she could see that parts were missing right where the scaffolding led up to, so if she had to guess they were probably having it fixed when the power went out.

"Yeah, boss said he wants to wait till they all wake up. The big one and the blonde ain't talkin' so were waitin' on the little guy." Charlie had to hide a chuckle at that, they were obviously refering to Conner. It was Tattoos guy talking, with Chubbs by his side. The third guy was enormous, probably close to seven feet tall judging by the way he towered over his friends. The man wasn't just tall though, he was probably as wide as Miles, Monroe, and Conner put together. _So now we've got Shrek, and somewhere hanging around inside is this 'boss.' So there's eight of them. Yay._

Then another man came walking toward them from the front of the building. This guy was older than all the others, probably a little older than Miles and Monroe, but he had a long beard that reached all the way down to the sword belt around his waist. _Well, Dumbledore makes nine, this just keeps getting better. _"Boss wants you two back inside, I'm headed out to check the perimeter." He didn't wait for his friends to reply just took off into the trees.

"Have fun!" Shrek laughed at his own little joke as his friends disappeared. Then he sat back against the rusted, old, metal bars and shut his eyes like he was preparing for a good nap.

Charlie rolled her eyes at whoever this 'boss' was. _Get some better guys you moron. _She looked down at the ground beneath her and found a decent sized rock. She looked towards the back of the building where Joe was no doubt still smoking his cigarette and threw the rock as far as she could from the warehouse.

Just as expected, Skrek jerked to life and headed toward the back of the building. "Hey man, you hear that?" She figured he was probably talking to Joe.

"Yeah, probably just a deer or something." Wanting her master plan to work, she picked up another rock and tossed it near where the other had landed. "Well, maybe we should check it out. Just to be safe, don't want the boss gettin' mad." Joe and Shrek made their way into the trees, and Charlie knew she had to act fast because they wouldn't be gone long.

She crouched low and made her way to the scaffolding. Pushing back any doubts about whether or not it would hold her, she started to climb. Slowly at first, to test the rusted metal, then faster knowing she didn't have much time. Her hands were getting sweaty and her heart was beating in her throat as she neared the top. Ten feet, five feet, just one more step. Her foot slipped as a rusted rung fell out from under her. She caught herself and swung her leg up to the roof before rolling onto what she hoped was a stable enough part to hold her.

She laid there for a moment, holding her breath, worried that she had made too much noise, but she could hear voices coming from inside the warehouse and none of them seemed alarmed. Finally letting herself breath, she waited until she caught her breath to look back down to the ground. As she peered over the edge she could see Shrek making his way back to his post, and undoubtedly, his nap. Smiling at his stupidity, she turned her attention to the holes in the roof.

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><p>AN So there is another chapter to this that I will upload soon, I promise. The story just got really long and wordy and it felt like it need a break in it. And I need to do some editing. Let me know what you think! :-)


	2. Chapter 2

A/N So I'm still in shock that anyone actually read this and reviewed. So thank you so much! And I hope you like it :-)

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><p>The rusted out roof creaked under her as she moved, so she slowed her pace to try and prevent the noise. Once she made it to a large enough hole she stuck her head in to look around.<p>

Some thirty feet below her, and in the very center of the building, she could see the dim light of an oil lamp and six figures. She was to far away to make anything else out so she lowered herself gently onto one of the large support beams. Thankfully, it didn't creak, the inside of the building appeared to be in better shape. She inched slowly along the beams until she found herself above the the men in the middle of the room.

Three of them were clearly being suspended by their arms, their feet barely touching the floor._ The boys of course. _Of the other three, two of them were Tattoos and Chubbs. The other was an older man with graying hair, and an old pre-blackout suit. _So you must be the boss. _She could just hear Araron, 'guy in a tacky suit, must be a mobster.' She had to smother a laugh and shake her head to clear it. _Focus Charlie._

The boss was sitting in a chair at the small table holding their single source of light. She doubted that they could see farther than ten feet with no other light source. It was hard to see from this height but he looked like he was loading his gun so the boys could watch. Knowing that they wouldn't be scared by some old guy in a suit she wasn't worried much, until the old guy spoke.

"So, are you boys gonna tell me where your little girlfriend went?" The boys all remained silent. "We know you were travelling with a woman. Very beautiful, from what my men tell me." Again, his words were met with silence. "Very well." He motioned to Chubbs who stepped towards Conner and pulled his fist back.

"Wait!" It was Monroe talking. "Why do you care? What do you want her for? She's just some dumb whore we found in Vegas." Charlie pushed back the rage that flooded through her because she knew he was just trying to protect her and keep Conner from getting pummeled.

"You said it yourself, everyman needs a good whore, and well, we need your supplies." The old guy was holding Chubbs off for the moment but she knew that wouldn't last long. Directly behind where Tattoos and Chubbs were standing there was a tall tower of crates next to one of the steel pillars holding up the ceiling. She quickly made her way towards it and looked down. Now she could see the boys' faces, but none of them were paying attention. They were a little busy after all.

"Well we don't know where she went, she got pissed and took off." Now Miles was talking. _And telling the truth. People would be surprised by how often he actually does that._

"And you let her? She's a whore! What's wrong with you? If she complains, knock her ass out, that's what she's there for." The old guy was looking at them like he thought there must be something wrong with them when Monroe laughed.

"Yeah, I bet you get that a lot. Complaints, I mean. It can't be easy to keep a girl happy when your as old as Moses." The old man growled and Charlie knew this was her chance. As the old man's fist rammed into Monroe's stomach she used the accompanying noise as her cover for dropping down onto the crates below. As Monroe grunted in pain she landed with a thud, which thankfully, no one heard.

Standing about ten feet above their heads now Charlie took out her crossbow and loaded an arrow into it, she took her hunting knife from it's shelth and looked down at Tattoos and Chubbs below her. First she took aim with her knife. Point down, directly above Chubbs' beefy neck, she hoped to hit his spine to silence him instantly. Then aiming her crossbow at Tattoos, she checked her aim on both weapons once more before taking a deep breath.

As the knife dropped from her left hand she pulled the trigger on her crossbow with her right. She watched as her arrow embedded itself into Tattoos' neck, just below his ear. The knife, which picked up speed as it fell, cut into the back of Chubbs' neck, severing his spinal cord.

With no time to waste as the two thugs fell to the floor she held onto her crossbow and jumped the last ten feet down to land straight on top of the old guys head. It may have been a cushy landing, but it still hurt and made more noise than she had been counting on. She barely had time to smirk at the shocked looks on the boys faces before running to the entrance to meet whoever had undoubtedly heard the commotion.

It was a good thing she hadn't stopped to gloat because just as she reached the door Stinky slammed it open with his gun in her face. Rather than waiting for him to shoot her, she grabbed the barrel of his gun and used all her weight to shove the end of it back into his face. Stinky dropped his weapon and held his hands to his face, which was now bleeding, so she grabbed his head and slammed it into the door frame, successfully knocking him unconscious. _Four down, five to go._

Dragging his body to the other side of the doorway, she partially closed the door and loaded another arrow into her crossbow. She waited for what felt like hours, but she knew were only seconds, when she saw Frodo's tiny frame come through the door.

"Boss!" The little man seemed to forget himself and Charlie may have felt bad under different circumstances, but given the situation, she didn't hesitate. The arrow launched, hitting Frodo in the center of his back and he immediately fell forward onto his face. Sam's anguished cry came from the other side of the door and she turned her attention to him. She slammed the door shut, knocking him out of the way and farther into the building, but instead of shooting him she just hit him with the butt of her crossbow and he fell to the ground, covered in blood. _Six down, three to go._

Picking up Sam's gun she once again retreated behind the door. "Charlie are you alright?" Miles was worried but there was no time. Shrek would be here any second and she couldn't take any chances of having to actually fight him. There was no way she would win. As if on cue, ground shaking footsteps could be heard coming their way. She clicked off the safety and took aim into the doorway. The moment his over sized frame came into view she pulled the trigger. BANG. BANG. BANG.

Shrek fell backwards, but before she even had time to process her victory, Joe came crashing down on top of her. They rolled farther into the warehouse, and as Charlie got to her feet she heard they safety on a gun click. She quickly jumped behind a stray crate to avoid the bullets he sent her way. Luckily, she had held onto Sam's gun, all she had to do was wait for him to stop and reload. As soon as the shooting stopped she peered over the top of the crate and took aim. He was still standing out in the open. BANG. A single shot between the eyes. _Idiot, why didn't you find some cover. You guys were too easy._

Charlie stood up and moved to the old man, who was still unconscious from her falling directly on top of him, but as she dropped her crossbow and bent down to grab the keys from his belt she snapped back up. "Wait, where's Dumbledore?" It wasn't meant to be said out loud and as soon as the words left her lips the door flew open.

The tower of crates she had jumped off of earlier was right behind her, she threw herself behind it just as the bullets started flying in her direction. "Alright you crazy bitch, me and you are gonna have a little chat." His voice was rough and menacing but she'd spent so much time around egotistical bastards (Monroe) that she merely rolled her eyes.

"You know I'm not really a social kinda girl, so I think I'm gonna pass." Dumbledore chuckled and sent a fresh wave of bullets in her direction. Cursing herself for leaving her crossbow on the ground next to the old man, she turned her attention to Tattoos who was lying dead on the floor a few feet away.

There was a gun in his hip holster, but her arms were to short to reach it. _Arrows Charlie, come on! _Reaching for another arrow, she looked up, directly across from her was Monroe. She met his eyes and held them for a second before she used the arrow to reach out and hook the gun to bring it to her. Clicking off the safety she leaned out slightly and fired a few shots in Dumbledore's general direction.

"Oh come on, is that all you've got? Guess your not as fun as I thought you'd be." His taunting made her angry. So she did what came naturally.

"Sorry, I try not to waste my time on worthless pieces of shit." That seemed to do the trick because he yelled angrily and unloaded his clip into the wooden crates she was using as cover. As soon as his shooting stopped she stepped out and saw him, partially in cover at least, against one of the steel pillars. With no time to waste she ran forward to get a clearer shot while he reloaded his weapon.

He knew the moment it was over. He looked up from his gun and saw her standing in front of him. The shock didn't even have time to register before she pulled the trigger. BANG. BANG. Two in his chest. _Nine. Ok, now we're done._

Charlie slumped back against an old forklift for a second before heading back to the boys. A genuine, big smile spread across her face at the looks of shock staring back at her.

"What?" She kept her face carefully calm trying her best to look innocent.

"Are you ok? Are you hit?" The worry was evident in Miles' voice.

"I'm fine." She shrugged nonchalantly and reached for the old man's keys again.

"Dude, you just took out like twenty guys, by yourself, in under two minutes." Conner couldn't seem to help but get on her nerves.

"There were only nine of them. And that's including this worthless old bag," she nudged the old guy with her toe and rolled her eyes. "Learn how to count."

"I'm happy that your great at math and all, but can you get me down now. My arms are killing me." Miles winced to show his discomfort. However, Charlie had some things to take care of first.

She stood right in front of him and poked him in the chest, glaring up at him. "I just saved your stupid asses, AGAIN." She poked him again. "No more keeping me out of fights to 'protect' me." She added air quotes around the word for emphasis and looked steadily into his face.

"Ok, fine you win. Can you just get me down now?" She unlocked his cuffs and his feet hit the floor with a thud. He groaned, stretching his sore muscles.

"Not to rush you, warrior-goddess, but I really have to pee." Charlie just blinked at Conner for moment before she burst into laughter. Taking a deep breath to bring herself under control and wiping tears from her eyes she looked at him.

"Don't ever call me that again, or you won't have to worry about that particular part of your body ever again." She gestured towards his private regions and the deathly serious look on her face must have been clue enough because Conner quickly agreed. She uncuffed him and he stomped off towards the door. Charlie then turned her attention to Monroe.

They stared at each other for a moment. Miles was off checking the bodies and tying up anyone who was still alive, so he was to busy to really pay attention to them. When it became obvious he wasn't going to say anything Charlie broke the silence.

"A thank you would be nice." The corners of his mouth twitched but he still didn't speak. His eyes bored into her and she relented. The chains slid from his wrists and he started shaking his arms to bring the life back into them, all the while never breaking eye contact with her.

He leaned forward, his breath tickling her cheek. "Thank you Charlotte."

"That wasn't so hard, now was it?" She was taunting him, but he wasn't having it.

"For the record though, I'd have been out of here in an hour anyway. Two tops."

"Really?" She feigned shock. "Well do you want me to chain you back up so you can try?" She held up the cuffs and he huffed a laugh.

"No, I'm good." He smiled, but was eyeing the cuffs warily.

"You sure? You seem so confident." There was no way she was going to let him get off easy.

"Hey Bass can you give me a hand?" Their heads whipped around to look at Miles. Monroe looked relieved for the interruption.

"Coming, brother." He took off, moving faster than strictly necessary, before turning back. "Nice work warrior-goddess." He smirked at her look of outrage and started tying Stinky's hands.

"Yeah kid, good job." Miles words made her forget all about Monroe and she smiled.

_Better late than never. I guess._

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><p>AN I do have a few other ideas for badass Charlie stories so let me know if you think I should continue!


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